No Man’s Sky’s newest expedition turns it into a roguelike

Today, No Man’s Sky launches Leviathan, the game’s newest expedition that offers perhaps the most interesting gameplay experience yet.

In the Leviathan launch trailer, a mysterious message splashes across the screen telling the player that “death is not the end” and that they must “re-enter the loop.” If you think that language sounds a little roguelike (heh), you’re right. In Leviathan, Hello Games is putting a little bit of Returnal chocolate in No Man’s Sky’s peanut butter.

In Leviathan, death resets a Traveller’s individual progress, forcing them to start over with a newly generated loadout. However, as the community lives, dies, and repeats, they feed into a global progress goal that awards players higher quality items with each new life. Only through that shared progress can the community hope to break out of the cycle of death.

Along the way, players learn about the titular Leviathan and earn rewards along with something the community’s been clamoring a long time for: a space whale.

The ultimate reward in Leviathan is a tentacled, cthulian, flying cetacean that’s the game’s first-ever “living frigate,” and I want one.